Canadian industries operated at 79.8% of their production capacity in the fourth quarter, up from a rate of 79.4% in the third quarter, which was revised slightly higher.
Growth in the construction sector
Capacity utilization in the construction sector rose 1.0 percentage point to 84.0% in the fourth quarter. This is the second straight quarterly increase after a series of nine consecutive declines. It coincided with increased activity in residential and non-residential building construction.
By contrast, capacity utilization in the electric power generation, transmission and distribution industry fell 0.3 percentage points to 83.1% in the fourth quarter. This downturn coincided with lower demand for electricity for heating purposes because of higher-than-normal temperatures in some parts of the country during the quarter.
Chart 1: Industrial capacity utilization in non-manufacturing industries
Description - Chart 1
Data table: Industrial capacity utilization in non-manufacturing industries
Source: Table 16-10-0109-01.
Capacity utilization in manufacturing edges up
The capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector edged up 0.1 percentage points to 78.2% in the fourth quarter. This increase was driven by petroleum and coal product manufacturing (+4.4 percentage points) and chemical manufacturing (+2.0 percentage points).
Chart 2: Variation by industry, in percentage points, fourth quarter of 2024 compared with third quarter of 2024
Description - Chart 2
Data table: Variation by industry, in percentage points, fourth quarter of 2024 compared with third quarter of 2024
Source: Table 16-10-0109-01.
Note to readers
he industrial capacity utilization rate is the ratio of an industry's actual output to its estimated potential output.
This program covers all manufacturing industries, as well as forestry and logging; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; electric power generation, transmission and distribution; and construction.
For non-manufacturing industries, the quarterly pattern is derived from the output-to-capital ratio series, the output being the real gross domestic product at basic prices, seasonally adjusted, by industry.
In this release, the industrial capacity utilization rates from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing were seasonally adjusted using X-12-ARIMA (auto-regressive integrated moving average) from the first quarter of 2017.
Data have been revised back to the first quarter of 2024 to account for revisions to the source data and new estimates from the statistical model.
Reference
Data table: 16-10-0109-01.
- Note: some data tables may best be viewed on desktop.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2821.
Previous release: Industrial capacity utilization rates, third quarter 2024.
Next release: June 13, 2025.
Contact information
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